For those distraught over the possibility of losing Wolf...

[CTBasketball]

What an absurd statement.

First off, how many teams are going to be able to throw a front court like that against us?

Secondly, i don't recall people complaining about Bazz on here much at all. Everyone knows and recognizes he was our best player.

Third, people complain about boat taking bad shots, well, because he takes a lot of awful shots.

I gave Wolf props but Cuse was a big team that made the final 4 and we beat them without wolf. not sure what more evidence you would need to convince you otherwise.

Louisville:

• Akoy Agau 6'9" 240, #75 ESPNU 100
• Montrezl Harrell 6'8 240
• Chane Behanan 6'7" 250
• Stephan Van Treese 6'9" 250

Not to mention UK, Michigan, Duke, Florida (especially), Kansas, UNC, Memphis, Arizona, Indiana, Syracuse, and LSU all have formidable front lines which are leagues better than ours. And people will complain about Shabazz next year if we don't win anything. Whether it be "he takes too many shots, he's a bad facilitator." It happened with Dyson and people still don't like Taliek because of his full-body of work.

 

[huskyharry]

Doomed for sure!
Just to comment about the list...height isn't the only important factor...Patrick Young may be just under 6'10" but he is physically a nightmare matchup for our bigs.
The prototypical example where Wolf made a defensive difference was last year was against Gardner from Marquette. Wolf actually slowed him down, whereas our other bigs got thrown around like rag dolls.

That being said, Coach Ollie has had another year to teach TO, Leon and PN, Kentan Facey will bring talent and athleticisim and is our most talented player taller than 6'8", Brimah also looks like a natural shot-blocker...but, the key will be team defense and team rebounding. Everyone will need to box out consistently, particularly our smaller players who didn't always dedicate themselves to that last year.

We should have the combination of length, team speed and team depth to be a good pressing team. Lasan, Omar, DD and NG give us 4 athletic wings who can at least present a challenge to opposing bigs on switches.

Louisville does seem like a very bad matchup for our bigs but their success will depend on whether their incoming PG lives up to his hype.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Louisville:

• 
  [ ]Akoy Agau 6'9" 240, #75 ESPNU 100
  [ ]Montrezl Harrell 6'8 240
  [ ]Chane Behanan 6'7" 250
  [ ]Stephan Van Treese 6'9" 250

Not to mention UK, Michigan, Duke, Florida (especially), Kansas, UNC, Memphis, Arizona, Indiana, Syracuse, and LSU all have formidable front lines which are leagues better than ours. And people will complain about Shabazz next year if we don't win anything. Whether it be "he takes too many shots, he's a bad facilitator." It happened with Dyson and people still don't like Taliek because of his full-body of work.

It's going to be tough, but you're forgetting how tough defenders giffey and dd are. not to mention are new guys and Nolan should improve.

also, edited my first post to you...I came off as a . didn't mean to.

 

[CTBasketball]

It's going to be tough, but you're forgetting how tough defenders giffey and dd are. not to mention are new guys and Nolan should improve.

also, edited my first post to you...I came off as a . didn't mean to.

It's alright there was no offense taken. I'm not Dan over here.

But Harry pointed that out above. Our bigs/forwards got pushed around against Marquette, NCST, and Louisville. Wolf was the only physical one to slow or lessen their big's impact. And Olander won't improve; he's a bum. And do you think Olander will give this effort?:

 

[AZHuskiePop]

I'm more distraught about losing him a member of the UConn family than a player. I feel bad for him but the only way his loss hurts us is if it effects the attitude of the team.
PS
When we play in the tourny
Nolan will be more like a junior and the freshman will have 30 games of experience. Playtng with confidence because of the back court experience which is key to post season success.
Our success will be determined by Bazz's health and the continued improvement of, RB, DD, OC,, and NG
Everyone else has a role to play how well they blend is the reason we have coaches who make big bucks.


Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

 

[ConnHuskBask]

It's alright there was no offense taken. I'm not Dan over here.

But Harry pointed that out above. Our bigs/forwards got pushed around against Marquette, NCST, and Louisville. Wolf was the only physical one to slow or lessen their big's impact. And Olander won't improve; he's a bum. And do you think Olander will give this effort?:

Unfortunately, i agree with you about Tyler. After his freshman year i had hoped he could develop into a decent player for us, but he just looks out of his league against the good teams more often than not. But hey, were in the AAC now so maybe he develops some confidence in lake play... who knows at this point. I will say I am high on Nolan. love his motor.

 

[mauconnfan]

We got outrebounded 49-21 against Prov with Wolf in the lineup, and then only outrebounded by 3 in the season finale when he was out, and that was without Omar and Giffey who are good rebounders for their positions. The rebounding issue wasn't as big as the season wore on, and Facey will be a better natural rebounder regardless of size. This legend building of Wolf that has gone on since it became apparent he wasn't coming back is one of the more bizarre episodes in Boneyard history.

I disagree on everyone's "legend of EW since the apparent departure".......what you see is people who saw the same things they saw during the year despite the foul trouble, a guy who was our best option in the middle although not glaringly the best. But the good things he did weren't being done by others even though they may not have even been consistent from EW......with improvement he is a nice option in '13-'14. If he doesn't come the world doesn't come to an end........I laugh at everyone's ability to point out certain games for points or rebounds......just watch the games, watch his feet, watch the shot changes, getting his hands on the ball to keep it alive and compare them to TO and Phil early on......he was better and when your better and 4-5 inches bigger normally that's a good thing!

No one is crying if he doe not return life will be great. With or w/o him they will need to all be better at rebounding the ball. DD looked like he was getting there as well as Phil. I'm excited no matter what, addition of Kromah will help also I believe. Just like to have an impact 7 footer, it never hurts!

 

[James]

am I missing something? late in the season it was apparant Nolan could do what Wolfe was doing given more run. there shouldn't be an uproar over such an average player. That being said well need to see 6-10 productive minutes from brimah.

 

[CL82]

Unfortunately, i agree with you about Tyler. After his freshman year i had hoped he could develop into a decent player for us, but he just looks out of his league against the good teams more often than not. But hey, were in the AAC now so maybe he develops some confidence in lake play... who knows at this point. I will say I am high on Nolan. love his motor.

Put him at PF and pair him another decent big and he'd do fine. Unfortunately that's not how we need to use him. I like the kid and hope he does well, but it is probably best to have limited expectations for him.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Not to mention UK, Michigan, Duke, Florida (especially), Kansas, UNC, Memphis, Arizona, Indiana, Syracuse, and LSU all have formidable front lines which are leagues better than ours.

You mention a whole bunch of teams with great frontcourts, but leave out the fact that we went 2-0 against teams on that list last year and Enosch Wolf was a non-factor in both games.

 

[aceboon]

I agree that Wolf did some nice things that can't be measured in just points and rebounds like defending at the rim and serving as a roadblock, but again, it was so noticeable because it was in comparison to Tyler. Its not an exaggeration to say Giffey was better in that regard than Tyler because KO even used him down the stretch of games at C, most noticeably in the Georgetown game and he was actually rotating over and blocking shots at the rim at 6'6" while guys were waltzing in there against Tyler. At the same time in praising Wolf for what he was able to do at the rim, I think you guys that are most vocal in praising Wolf are severely glossing over just how poor Wolf was at defending the pick and roll, which champs already pointed out in the other post. That's something that also can't be measured in just points/rebs, but it can be measured by looking at his lack of his minutes, and his poor pick and roll D was a big contributor to that. I remember in the Pitt game when the team had battled back from that big defecit and had come within a bucket, and the following Pitt possession Wolf played a pick and roll situation about as poorly as you could possibly play it and Pitt scored and that was the end of that. Maybe he would've got better at it since this was his first year with extended time, maybe not, but we will have two bigs in Nolan and Facey(maybe Brimah as well) with quicker feet and better lateral quickness who should be able to get a better handle on this than Wolf. I see alot of comparisons to Chuck with Wolf as far as what they provide and Chuck was miles ahead at defending the pick and roll, just see the way he played Brandon Knight in the Final 4 game against UK for proof of that.

I disagree on everyone's "legend of EW since the apparent departure".......what you see is people who saw the same things they saw during the year despite the foul trouble, a guy who was our best option in the middle although not glaringly the best. But the good things he did weren't being done by others even though they may not have even been consistent from EW......with improvement he is a nice option in '13-'14. If he doesn't come the world doesn't come to an end........I laugh at everyone's ability to point out certain games for points or rebounds......just watch the games, watch his feet, watch the shot changes, getting his hands on the ball to keep it alive and compare them to TO and Phil early on......he was better and when your better and 4-5 inches bigger normally that's a good thing!

No one is crying if he doe not return life will be great. With or w/o him they will need to all be better at rebounding the ball. DD looked like he was getting there as well as Phil. I'm excited no matter what, addition of Kromah will help also I believe. Just like to have an impact 7 footer, it never hurts!

 

[SeattleHoop]

Quote me on this right now, Nolan and Facey , next year, are both going to be better than Wolf was last year in terms of overall production. I truly believe it.

 

[CTBasketball]

You mention a whole bunch of teams with great frontcourts, but leave out the fact that we went 2-0 against teams on that list last year and Enosch Wolf was a non-factor in both games.

1-1. And we only beat Syracuse because we shot almost 60% from downtown. You're going to beat the Heat if you make 60% of your 3's. And Syracuse doesn't exactly have a HUGE frontline.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

1-1. And we only beat Syracuse because we shot almost 60% from downtown. You're going to beat the Heat if you make 60% of your 3's. And Syracuse doesn't exactly have a HUGE frontline.

Sorry, I misread Michigan as Michigan State. They fit in pretty nicely to this discussion though - a team with a huge, powerful frontline that was supposed to dominate us inside. If you recall, Izzo had to take out one of his big guys and go to a smaller lineup because his power forward couldn't guard DeAndre Daniels.

 

[mauconnfan]

I agree that Wolf did some nice things that can't be measured in just points and rebounds like defending at the rim and serving as a ro , but again, it was so noticeable because it was in comparison to Tyler. Its not an exaggeration to say Giffey was better in that regard than Tyler because KO even used him down the stretch of games at C, most noticeably in the Georgetown game and he was actually rotating over and blocking shots at the rim at 6'6" while guys were waltzing in there against Tyler. At the same time in praising Wolf for what he was able to do at the rim, I think you guys that are most vocal in praising Wolf are severely glossing over just how poor Wolf was at defending the pick and roll, which champs already pointed out in the other post. That's something that also can't be measured in just points/rebs, but it can be measured by looking at his lack of his minutes, and his poor pick and roll D was a big contributor to that. I remember in the Pitt game when the team had battled back from that big defecit and had come within a bucket, and the following Pitt possession Wolf played a pick and roll situation about as poorly as you could possibly play it and Pitt scored and that was the end of that. Maybe he would've got better at it since this was his first year with extended time, maybe not, but we will have two bigs in Nolan and Facey(maybe Brimah as well) with quicker feet and better lateral quickness who should be able to get a better handle on this than Wolf. I see alot of comparisons to Chuck with Wolf as far as what they provide and Chuck was miles ahead at defending the pick and roll, just see the way he played Brandon Knight in the Final 4 game against UK for proof of that.

All good....in comparison to the others his pick and roll defense and his hedging were light years better.....not saying he was great but if you think his minutes were because of that I'm guessing you're wrong. The other 2, again Nolan got a little better, were plain awful on pick and the hedge, much like AO in the past and even Andre.........we haven't had a very good defender in that situation in along time and that's where the Huskies have suffered.

Moving along I think with his athleticism and strength, confidence Phil will be ready to take over but without the extra fouls Brimah and Facey will need to take some minutes - TO and PN are prone! That's where he will be missed........

 

[CL82]

Quote me on this right now, Nolan and Facey , next year, are both going to be better than Wolf was last year in terms of overall production. I truly believe it.

There you go, Mike.

 

[Waquoit]

Quote me on this right now, Nolan and Facey , next year, are both going to be better than Wolf was last year in terms of overall production. I truly believe it.

Perhaps, but I'm not sure they will be better than Wolf would be next year. I get the feeling that the staff is feeling good about Facey's learning curve.